There’s no AI in me

by Lucy Gardner

Algorithms to live by, written by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, was released in 2016. Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths explore the insights of how algorithms we know that computers run apply to our everyday lives, to help with problem solving but more specifically decision making. While it may seem this book has no relation to English Literature, there are actually many connections between the concepts discussed in the book and the world of English literature. This unique view interests me because of the multitude of different perspectives of human nature.

Throughout the book many algorithms that computer scientists study are put into the perspective of the real world. For example, finding ‘the one’, when to sell your house or finding the right candidate for a job in a series of interviews.

Throughout the book, the authors argue that many of the decisions we make in our lives can be thought of as computational problems, where we try and find the best possible solution. Such as, buying or selling your house (when is the right time?), finding a partner (are they the one?), where to park your car at work (will there be a space closer that’s more convenient?). You could try and see if there is but that might lead to disappointment, you turning round and finding your original space, gone. So, the “secretary problem” judges scenarios without knowing the answer and having to gamble slightly. The idea of decision making is central to literature, for example when characters are faced with difficult choices and, we as readers, feel the suspense as we gather information to whether it was the correct decision, or not, even in poetry when the author has many critical lenses through which you could interpret their writing. However, this algorithm could help make overwhelming decisions and with the use of more algorithms in our lives we could become much simpler, whether that’s a good thing or not.

The authors also explore ‘randomness’ and argue that it can be powerful to help solve problems. They propose that we should embrace randomness rather than eliminating it from our lives or being caught off guard by it. Many great works of literature have unexpected plot twists and turns, and characters are constantly trying to adapt to their changing lives. The authors express that we should use the same techniques that computer scientists use to solve these problems.

– John Keats

I think that Christian and Griffiths explore the ideas that we program me computers in a way that we would like to think and process information, but we as the human race are far too complex to do this. The concepts of optimization, randomness and decision making are central to many great works of literature. By exploring these we create a deeper understanding of the world of literature linked within the world of computer science.

So when you say there’s no AI in me… there is!